Opening a old project in DxDesigner/PADS 9.3

I am new to DxDesigner. I recently have been employed by a company that uses PADS 9.3. I am unable to open any of the previous designs. There is no one here that has any previous expertise with DxDesigner/PADS 9.3. I keep getting a WIR error when I attempt to open a project.

Based on the posts it appears I need to have the older versions of the software to recreate the WIR files. I don’t have access to the older programs. I have asked everyone in my company if the old versions exist and I get the same story that the person I replaced took care of all the DxDesigner information.

I find it very odd you would need to have the older programs to open into a newer version of the software. I have watched the webinar and read the blogs but I just don’t have time to keep working on this problem. I am new at this company and it is frustrating to tell someone you can’t open the files because it is an older version. They don’t believe I am having this trouble. I get the response;” AutoCAD, Word, Excel, Altium and other programs don’t need to rely on the older version to convert to the newer”. DxDesigner is not providing me with the ability to perform my job and prove they made a good choice in hiring me.

Bottom line is how do I open an old project in DxDesigner using only the version I have installed.

I have used Tango, EasyPC, Altium, Orcad, and Eagle and felt I would have no problem with DxDesigner. I have heard good things about the program but so far I am not having any luck with it. The learning curve is steeper than I would have imagined.

Chances are those symbols are defined as "COMPOSITE" instead of "MODULE" -- Composites means there is a schematic under the symbol. I doubt that your connectors and resistors have underlying logic.

The symbols are simply ASCII files that can be opened in the new versions without issue. So create a dummy project and add the libraries to it. Then open the symbols and change the symbol types, save them and try the migration of the project that uses them again.

The original Powerview/Viewdraw and DxDesigner through the 2005 versions utilized an ASCII file structure. It was advanced in it's time but it was designed around 1980. Over time and product growth the structure became inconsistent between different customers and was becoming obsolete technically. With the 2007 releases the data is migrated into a technologically advanced database structure allowing simultaneous editing by multiple users for a single design,eliminating inefficient processes, improving user productivity and correct by design construction.

Although the migration process can be painful, usually there are a few simple solutions and the migration unifies and forces the correction of various errors and poorly specified constructs in previous processes, designs and libraries simplifying future design.

You are in the initial migration process step, a new user, having to learn both a new tool, and what was allowed to be inconsistent in the older version of DxDesigner. In addition to our training and support opportunities, are you aware that an evaluation guide is installed when you installed the current releases of the PADS flow software?